The story is relevant for India today.

In June 1975, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was traveling in London with her daughter Nayantara when she heard the news. Her niece, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had suspended Constitutional rights and declared an Emergency in India. In disbelief, Pandit tried to learn more about what had happened and why. She went to the High Commissioner’s residence, her own former home, and there realised the true terror she and her country were now facing. Opposition figures in their hundreds had been arrested, yet ambassadorial officials walked around with Stepford smiles. “Everything is fine,” they declared.

Upon her return home, Pandit found a Brave New World, with billboards everywhere plastered with elements of a 20-point programme that would bring Good Days to India. The population walked around in dazed silence, further hypnotised by radio and television ads that constantly promoted the government and its initiatives, while real news was erased. The place felt like a giant prison camp.

At her home in Dehradun, Pandit found herself under surveillance; someone was literally hiding in the bushes not all that discreetly. Her phones were tapped. Her mail was censored. Longtime friends and associates distanced themselves from her, for fear of repercussions.

Pandit found all this heartbreaking. She had adored her niece in their younger days; their extended family was very close and the two of them had a loving and close relationship early on. But Gandhi’s growing paranoia, her thin skin and insecurity, and her steely resolve to crush all who stood in her way gradually grew the distance between them, so much so that a few years previously, Gandhi had said directly that she simply did not trust her aunt.

Isolated in her home, Pandit faced many a sleepless night, “not willing to accept what was and yet not knowing what to do”. “How,” she wondered, “could we have become such little, mean people, full of fear and sycophancy?”

Day by day, the situation seemed to only grow worse. Gandhi was a deity, a goddess. She was India and India was her. Caesar had arrived.

Pushing back

Finally, determined to act for the greater good, whatever the consequences, Pandit gave an interview to The New York Times that appeared on October 31, 1976. Freedom and democracy were under assault, she proclaimed. She despaired for her country.

A few months later, Gandhi lifted the Emergency and began to release political prisoners. Opposition forces united to fight her and the “authoritarian trend” she represented. Pandit joined them, offering her services to help right the ship of state.

Now filled with the hope that can only come from productive action towards a better future, Pandit decided to release a dramatic, poignant statement to the press, which received widespread attention when she and Jagjivan Ram, a Dalit champion and former central minister, held a joint press conference on February 12, 1977. Her statement read:

“The essence of democracy is the right to dissent. This does not imply disloyalty to the country. Exchange of views and discussions are a democratic way towards a solid base on which the future progress and prosperity of the nation should be built. It is shocking to see all dissent muzzled and those who disagreed with government put into prison…More than anything else the situation created by fear is one which should be of concern to all thinking people. Gandhiji worked long and hard to release Indians from the fear caused by years of foreign rule. He put courage in our hearts and gave us strength and stamina to face and break a mighty empire…People are afraid to speak and by their silence have acquiesced in the denial of the very freedoms for which an earlier generation fought and laid down their lives. I have remained a passive spectator for too long but I cannot live at peace with myself if, by my silence, I seem to agree with the destruction of all I have been taught to hold dear…My first duty and loyalty is and must always be to my country.”

Pandit put everything she had into campaigning for the opposition, travelling widely and speaking at rally after rally, but seeking no position for herself. On election day, Gandhi and her allies were swept from power. Pandit recalled that it “must have been something like what happened in Europe at the ending of World War II.”

But Pandit’s political victory only magnified her personal sorrow. How could someone she held so close have gotten so far lost? She noted wistfully:

“Indira and I belong by upbringing and education on the same side, that of human rights, the need to work for freedom from oppressions that continue to crush humanity in so many parts of the world. When she strayed from that concept it was my duty to oppose her. Love for an individual must be kept separate from one’s deep convictions and beliefs, and this I did with all the strength and faith I possessed. When I went to meet her several weeks after the elections, I embraced her and wept…I cried for an opportunity lost…Her greatest mistake was in trying to build up her younger son…in allowing him to imagine he was some kind of crown prince. In his arrogance and thoughtlessness he brought upon India a tragedy and on his mother the hostility of the masses.”

Manu Bhagavan is Professor of History and Human Rights at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, the City University of New York. He is writing a biography of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

Adopting three simple habits can help maximise the benefits of existing sanitation infrastructure.

India’s sanitation problem is well documented – the country was recently declared as having the highest number of people living without basic sanitation facilities. Sanitation encompasses all conditions relating to public health - especially sewage disposal and access to clean drinking water. Due to associated losses in productivity caused by sickness, increased healthcare costs and increased mortality, India recorded a loss of 5.2% of its GDP to poor sanitation in 2015. As tremendous as the economic losses are, the on-ground, human consequences of poor sanitation are grim - about one in 10 deaths, according to the World Bank.

Poor sanitation contributes to about 10% of the world’s disease burden and is linked to even those diseases that may not present any correlation at first. For example, while lack of nutrition is a direct cause of anaemia, poor sanitation can contribute to the problem by causing intestinal diseases which prevent people from absorbing nutrition from their food. In fact, a study found a correlation between improved sanitation and reduced prevalence of anaemia in 14 Indian states. Diarrhoeal diseases, the most well-known consequence of poor sanitation, are the third largest cause of child mortality in India. They are also linked to undernutrition and stunting in children - 38% of Indian children exhibit stunted growth. Improved sanitation can also help reduce prevalence of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Though not a cause of high mortality rate, NTDs impair physical and cognitive development, contribute to mother and child illness and death and affect overall productivity. NTDs caused by parasitic worms - such as hookworms, whipworms etc. - infect millions every year and spread through open defecation. Improving toilet access and access to clean drinking water can significantly boost disease control programmes for diarrhoea, NTDs and other correlated conditions.

Unfortunately, with about 732 million people who have no access to toilets, India currently accounts for more than half of the world population that defecates in the open. India also accounts for the largest rural population living without access to clean water. Only 16% of India’s rural population is currently served by piped water.

However, there is cause for optimism. In the three years of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the country’s sanitation coverage has risen from 39% to 65% and eight states and Union Territories have been declared open defecation free. But lasting change cannot be ensured by the proliferation of sanitation infrastructure alone. Ensuring the usage of toilets is as important as building them, more so due to the cultural preference for open defecation in rural India.

According to the World Bank, hygiene promotion is essential to realise the potential of infrastructure investments in sanitation. Behavioural intervention is most successful when it targets few behaviours with the most potential for impact. An area of public health where behavioural training has made an impact is WASH - water, sanitation and hygiene - a key issue of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6. Compliance to WASH practices has the potential to reduce illness and death, poverty and improve overall socio-economic development. The UN has even marked observance days for each - World Water Day for water (22 March), World Toilet Day for sanitation (19 November) and Global Handwashing Day for hygiene (15 October).

At its simplest, the benefits of WASH can be availed through three simple habits that safeguard against disease - washing hands before eating, drinking clean water and using a clean toilet. Handwashing and use of toilets are some of the most important behavioural interventions that keep diarrhoeal diseases from spreading, while clean drinking water is essential to prevent water-borne diseases and adverse health effects of toxic contaminants. In India, Hindustan Unilever Limited launched the Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative, a WASH behaviour change programme, to complement the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Through its on-ground behaviour change model, SASB seeks to promote the three basic WASH habits to create long-lasting personal hygiene compliance among the populations it serves.

This touching film made as a part of SASB’s awareness campaign shows how lack of knowledge of basic hygiene practices means children miss out on developmental milestones due to preventable diseases.

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SASB created the Swachhata curriculum, a textbook to encourage adoption of personal hygiene among school going children. It makes use of conceptual learning to teach primary school students about cleanliness, germs and clean habits in an engaging manner. Swachh Basti is an extensive urban outreach programme for sensitising urban slum residents about WASH habits through demos, skits and etc. in partnership with key local stakeholders such as doctors, anganwadi workers and support groups. In Ghatkopar, Mumbai, HUL built the first-of-its-kind Suvidha Centre - an urban water, hygiene and sanitation community centre. It provides toilets, handwashing and shower facilities, safe drinking water and state-of-the-art laundry operations at an affordable cost to about 1,500 residents of the area.

HUL’s factory workers also act as Swachhata Doots, or messengers of change who teach the three habits of WASH in their own villages. This mobile-led rural behaviour change communication model also provides a volunteering opportunity to those who are busy but wish to make a difference. A toolkit especially designed for this purpose helps volunteers approach, explain and teach people in their immediate vicinity - their drivers, cooks, domestic helps etc. - about the three simple habits for better hygiene. This helps cast the net of awareness wider as regular interaction is conducive to habit formation. To learn more about their volunteering programme, click here. To learn more about the Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative, click here.

This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of Hindustan Unilever and not by the Scroll editorial team.